Mckibben Lane Elementary school...2nd Grade --fall of 1969..snot nosed kids abound. Teachers with those funky glasses like they wore back then (the good looking teachers all got knocked up and left the program)...we are talking RETRO...
It is coloring time..Construction paper handed out, and kids break out the Binney Smith Crayolas from our desk bags--yall remember Desk Bags? The canvas deal that tied t the side of the desk--pouch opened up for your notebooks, the pockets on the front for rulers, watercolors, etc. at the end of the school year you could take them home and have your mom wash them for next year---
if you were in the 4th grade, you could take the deskbag home and explain to your mom why it was that you wrote the word F--- on their --but that's yet another story) --
-anyhow..the Binney Smith Crayolas--they are next to the PASTE. How bout that PASTE? Who the heck invented that mess? It was in the plastic white jug that is supposed to look like a barrel and it is all but dried up...
Later, like in the 5th grade, the Ol man came into some money and purchased the Fisher kids rubber cement---Rubber cement is what made the hottest girl in school, Wanda Beck (hallowed be thy name) come up to me and ask to borrow my rubber cement. She was wearing hot pants--it was 1972---but that's yet ANOTHER story----anyway, back to PASTE.
Some of these kids live off this stuff as opposed to the school lunch. In fact, if it weren't for boogers and paste, some of these kids would have scurvy.... Crayolas in hand, and we go to work in earnest--coloring pictures of our pets, perhaps flowers and trees-- the normal 5-6 yr old stuff.. Guerry Bruner, my boyhood Friend and idol, readies himself in his typical fashion--goes for the ruler, lays out what he needs, and sharpens crayons accordingly (he has the 64 count deluxe box w/built in sharpener as I recall)-- Guerry Bruner, if you need me to paint a picture, is the little boy in class with the slicked back black hair, and not a one out of place, thankyouverymuch. Neat as a pin, while the rest of us were unkempt and probably infested with lice. This little second grader
looked just like he stepped out of a Sears & Roebuck Sunday ad.
A little while into our artistic endeavor, and I notice that while the rest of us are doing normal kid stuff with our crayons, and another few have resorted to picking noses or eating whats left of the paste (the scurvy kids), Guerry has been in ARCHITECT mode and drawn a Crane...with tracks, a boom, winch, to include the metal work that supports same..so, next thing you know there is a crowd of booger eaters around his desk pointing, whispering, and asking WHATS THAT, WHATS THAT.... Finally, It may have been ME who asked, as my 42 year old memory fails me now, but SOMEONE asked what color crayon he was using--the color most magnificent and the contrast and hue unequaled by anything I had seen in my entire 6 years or even in his deluxe 64 count box with built in sharpener....
With little to no hesistation, he replied "AQUAMARINE"---it resonated across the room as if a battle cry--an alert to duty, like "THE INJUNS ARE COMING!", or DAMN THE TORPEDOES.... "AQUAMARINE", Indeed. Never had a color shone so bright, so crisp, or so....so....BLUE-GREEN... Needless to say, the rest of us rifled thru our worn down, nubbed, chewed on Crayolas desperately searching for AQUAMARINE...actually, my search would be a futile one, for it wasn't until that Christmas that I got a box of DELUXE 64 count w/Sharpener Crayolas, and had AQUAMARINE of my own to wear down to nothing. It was always the most used crayon in my box.
In my office I currently look at a framed photo I have of Guerry and I--resting on the frame is a Binney Smith Color Crayon--AQUAMARINE.
The Crayola AQUAMARINE color crayon. My buddy Guerry. Life is better for having known them both.
It is coloring time..Construction paper handed out, and kids break out the Binney Smith Crayolas from our desk bags--yall remember Desk Bags? The canvas deal that tied t the side of the desk--pouch opened up for your notebooks, the pockets on the front for rulers, watercolors, etc. at the end of the school year you could take them home and have your mom wash them for next year---
if you were in the 4th grade, you could take the deskbag home and explain to your mom why it was that you wrote the word F--- on their --but that's yet another story) --
-anyhow..the Binney Smith Crayolas--they are next to the PASTE. How bout that PASTE? Who the heck invented that mess? It was in the plastic white jug that is supposed to look like a barrel and it is all but dried up...
Later, like in the 5th grade, the Ol man came into some money and purchased the Fisher kids rubber cement---Rubber cement is what made the hottest girl in school, Wanda Beck (hallowed be thy name) come up to me and ask to borrow my rubber cement. She was wearing hot pants--it was 1972---but that's yet ANOTHER story----anyway, back to PASTE.
Some of these kids live off this stuff as opposed to the school lunch. In fact, if it weren't for boogers and paste, some of these kids would have scurvy.... Crayolas in hand, and we go to work in earnest--coloring pictures of our pets, perhaps flowers and trees-- the normal 5-6 yr old stuff.. Guerry Bruner, my boyhood Friend and idol, readies himself in his typical fashion--goes for the ruler, lays out what he needs, and sharpens crayons accordingly (he has the 64 count deluxe box w/built in sharpener as I recall)-- Guerry Bruner, if you need me to paint a picture, is the little boy in class with the slicked back black hair, and not a one out of place, thankyouverymuch. Neat as a pin, while the rest of us were unkempt and probably infested with lice. This little second grader
looked just like he stepped out of a Sears & Roebuck Sunday ad.
A little while into our artistic endeavor, and I notice that while the rest of us are doing normal kid stuff with our crayons, and another few have resorted to picking noses or eating whats left of the paste (the scurvy kids), Guerry has been in ARCHITECT mode and drawn a Crane...with tracks, a boom, winch, to include the metal work that supports same..so, next thing you know there is a crowd of booger eaters around his desk pointing, whispering, and asking WHATS THAT, WHATS THAT.... Finally, It may have been ME who asked, as my 42 year old memory fails me now, but SOMEONE asked what color crayon he was using--the color most magnificent and the contrast and hue unequaled by anything I had seen in my entire 6 years or even in his deluxe 64 count box with built in sharpener....
With little to no hesistation, he replied "AQUAMARINE"---it resonated across the room as if a battle cry--an alert to duty, like "THE INJUNS ARE COMING!", or DAMN THE TORPEDOES.... "AQUAMARINE", Indeed. Never had a color shone so bright, so crisp, or so....so....BLUE-GREEN... Needless to say, the rest of us rifled thru our worn down, nubbed, chewed on Crayolas desperately searching for AQUAMARINE...actually, my search would be a futile one, for it wasn't until that Christmas that I got a box of DELUXE 64 count w/Sharpener Crayolas, and had AQUAMARINE of my own to wear down to nothing. It was always the most used crayon in my box.
In my office I currently look at a framed photo I have of Guerry and I--resting on the frame is a Binney Smith Color Crayon--AQUAMARINE.
The Crayola AQUAMARINE color crayon. My buddy Guerry. Life is better for having known them both.
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